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Campus on a keyboard
Online learning has been a boon to millions.But is it a conveniencehis third Middle East aignment in three years.While overseas, he continued uninterrupted with his bachelor's degree studies via the Internet at Grantham University, an online college in Slidell, La.The US government is paying for his tuition.Military duties made attending college impoible for Fisher until he chose an online program, he says.“The ability to take my claes while on deployment, and have my questions answered anywhere in the world, was a dream come true,” he says.Like Fisher, many Americans, both students and employers, see online learning as an acceptablealternative to traditional schools.But in the eyes of some, it's a controversial development that promises to shake up the practice, regulation, and funding of college education in the US.Distance learning represents “the extreme commercialization of higher education,” says humanities scholar Morris Berman, author of “The Twilight of American Culture.” It's a development that threatens “the sacred space of the claroom,” according to technology historian David Noble, author of “Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education.”
The debate will become more than merely academic for US lawmakers as early as this spring.Up for review is the Higher Education Act, which includes a 1992 law that withholds low-interest, deferred-payment federal tuition loans from students at colleges whose on-campus enrollment is below 50 percent.Several bills before Congre propose easing the 1992 rule.The law was originally aimed at preventing federal aid from being used by “diploma mills.”
But critics say it hurts students who want to complete accredited online courses that enjoy military and civilian recognition.US Sen.Michael Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, says “more and more people are beginning to understand that distance learning is a legitimate course of study.”
Some 3 million students were enrolled in online courses in the US in 2002, estimates Frank Mayadas of New York's Sloan Foundation, which studies education iues.Accredited online colleges and universities are the cutting edge of a new era in American education, “especially for the 83 million adults aged 25 to 54 who have no college degree,” says Grantham University chairman Tom Macon.Grantham, a 53-year-old college that once operated five residential campuses, adopted distance learning decades ago when the military asked it to provide correspondence courses to troops overseas.The school introduced Web-based courses in the 1990s.Last October, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote to thank Grantham for supporting US armed forces members and recognized its “great morale building effort.”
But Mark Smith, director of government relations for the American Aociation of University Profeors, is unconvinced.“In many ways, there is no substitute for the give-and-take of the claroom,” he says.“A good higher education doesn't require only the transmiion of facts, but the development of critical thinking skills.”
Distance learning can be useful in more limited applications, Mr.Smith agrees.“We're not against distance learning and online education in and of themselves,” he says.“Some of our members use these as supplementary tools to add to the educational experience.But we're concerned about the quality of education that results when electronic media become the only ones used.”
For some critics of online learning, the Internet is a tool that can legitimately be used for many types of vocational trainingwho is studying for a bachelor's degree on his own onlinea situation shared by millions of Americans for whom a traditional college program isn't feasible,“ he says.USAF Master Sgt.Ronald McNabb, a fellow student of Fisher's, is one of those Americans.Currently stationed in Montgomery, Ala., he spends lunch breaks and free hours studying online for a degree from Touro College in Cypre, Calif.On his discharge in 2005, Master Sargeant McNabb expects to have a second degree, qualifying him to be a potential contractor to the Defense Department at almost double his current salary.His degree, like Fisher's, will be paid for by Uncle Sam.McNabb qualified last year as a systems analyst with a bachelor's degree.He says, ”I've been married 22 years and my daughter Ashton is 6.I woke up one morning and asked myself, 'What future do I have?' So I went back to school.With my Air Force duties, I had doubts I could do it.But studying online worked.“
Online learning seems a boon for people whose circumstances make it hard to attend claes.Judy Stuart, a single mother in Crosby, Texas, was holding down the latest in a series of jobs that included driving a long-haul truck when she decided to go to school online.Today, she works for a chemical company and is slated for a promotion when she receives her bachelor's degree next year.Joshua Masters, an on-campus graduate student at the University of Maachusetts, was diagnosed with leukemia some two years ago.”If I'd been at a standard brick-and-mortar university, I would have had to put my studies on hold for a year during treatment,“ he says.”But because I was then obtaining my first degree with an online college I was able to continue studying without losing any time.“
Fisher says he would actually have preferred the face-to-face contact of a traditional campus, but given the realities of a military lifestyle, that wouldn't have been an option.”I'm out of uniform now, but my wife is in the military and subject to transfer, so continuation of online study makes sense,“ he says.For Fisher, the bottom line is the flexibility of Internet study, the fact that the school's accreditation is as good as that of any on-campus college, and that the military has recognized it for financing purposes.Ms.Stuart says her experience with online learning was wonderful but also served to challenge one of the myths about Internet study: the notion that it doesn't require as much commitment and discipline as conventional claroom courses.If anything, Stuart believes she worked harder than most traditional on-site students.She says she can provide firsthand evidence that ”the idea that distance learning is easy is a misconception.“
(From The Christian Science Monitor, Feb.03, 2004)
1.What is the main idea of this article?
2.Why has on-line learning evoked much controversy?
3.What do the writers mean by saying that the law was originally aimed at preventing federal aid from being used by “diploma mills”?
4.How would you visualize the effect of the on-line education? Do you think it will grow in power in the 21st century? Is it something to be looked forward to or to be feared or prevented?
5.Has our contract with computers created any problems for us? Perhaps there is nothing absolutely good or bad, and the effect depends a lot on ourselves.Do you agree with that?
